SKIN ULTRASOUND

EQUIPMENT

1. What type of equipment do I need to perform ultrasound examinations of the skin?

   In my case I use ultrasound machines that come with variable frequency probes ( ≥ 15 MHz)
   

    

   
   

REFERENCES

1. Is there any book about skin ultrasound?

   The book "Dermatologic uUltrasound with Clinical and Histologic Correlations" has been already published. You can get  it through well known and international bookstores.
   

   Also, you can find more useful references in the web pages and links of this website.

   
   

SETTINGS

1. What settings do you use in your machine ?

   The probe used for the skin and nail examination is a compact linear (7 to 15 Mhz)

   The machine uses the setting: musculoskeletal/ superficial
   

   Wall filter : low

   PRF: 1000 Hz

   Dynamic range: 170 dB
   

   Axial resolution: 100 μm/pixel

   Lateral resolution : 90 μm/pixel

   
   

    

   
   

   
   

BENIGN VS MALIGNANT SKIN LESIONS

1. Is it possible to differentiate benign vs malignant skin lesions

   There are some differences such as irregularities, increased blood flow  and secondary involvement in malignant lesions. Although, in my experience with skin cancer the diagnosis in the majority of the cases is already made by the referring physician before the ultrasound examination . Therefore, ultrasound is useful to asess penetration, involvement of secondary structures and /or locoregional metastasis (all of them very important for  the prognosis)
   

SKIN ELASTOGRAPHY

1. Are you using elastography in skin lesions routinely?

   I have a very short experience with elastography in skin lesions .I had tested only one US machine that comes with elastography attached to the higher frequency probe. In my few cases, the addition of elastography neither generated  new  information nor changed the initial impression significantly. Although my experience is just initial and only correspond to a few number of cases in a short period of time. There is an interesting work about elastography in skin tumors presented in the RSNA 2009 by Dr Siegel and Dr Bahab that I recommend you to follow. Lastly , I think that further investigation should be needed about this subject and I´m looking forward to try elastography again in skin lesions.
   

IMAGING MODALITY

1. What is skin ultrasound ?

   It is a non invasive imaging study that uses ultrasound ( sound waves) for studying the skin with diagnosis purposes.